Chapter 2

I was in my tree, Starters of Fire in my left hoof open to page 53, when the ruler of our world waltzed up our driveway.

I had to blink and rub my eye just to know I wasn’t losing my mind. I did it twice and then realized that none of her royal attire, golden slippers, tiara and breast plate fitted with an amethyst crystal, were adorned her huge body.

“Why in the world would she come here?” I said, marking my place with the dragon bookmark Mom got me along with the book.

Celestia crept closer and closer to me as I put the book in a waterproof bag. I thought of that one, buying it during my usual grocery run after school, kind of instantaneously, an instinct buy people call it.

I thought Celestia was going to tell Mom something and climbed down as quietly as I could, hoping to get to a lower branch just as Celestia climbed onto the porch, but after I went down one branch, she stopped.

I stared, a monkey jumping down my throat, as Celestia paused. Had she found me? Even if she had why would she do anything about it? I’m not the reason she’s here. Adults only have time for other adults.

But I was wrong.

Celestia mumbled something about this being easier, what I didn’t know, before turning around and looking directly at me, a gentle smile on her face.

She looked so, small without her attire, more, normal, then it hit me. In one of the psychology books, I read how most social workers get the child to come with them. They look small and harmless and have the gentlest of smiles when they first see the child, that way they can reduce the amount of resistance and help the filly or colt feel safer.

Celestia’s not here for Mom, she’s here for me!

“Hello Crystal,” Celestia said, smiling her gentle smile. “Could you come down please? I need to talk to you about something.”

I had to stop myself from moving down, but only briefly before I proceeded anyway. Why would she be here? Mom never hurt me, nor did she abandon me. Yes she left me alone most, sometimes all day, but there’s always enough money to get whatever food I needed and plenty of books to read in the house, so why would Celestia come for me?

I had gotten down three branches when a yellow aura surrounded me. I yelped when my hoof left the security of the branches and closed my eyes, knowing I’d feel branches hitting my bottom any second, but, none did, and when I opened my eyes again, I was right in front of Celestia.

“My, how you’ve grown,” Celestia said, her tone even and kind. It made me feel at ease, just like she wanted. “I haven’t seen you since you were this big.” She held out her hooves about six inches apart.

“What do you mean?” I said, my voice actually shaking. “I’ve never seen you in my life?”

“Oh, you don’t remember. It was your first day of life, don’t feel bad.” She kissed my forehead, and I felt extremely safe, so safe that aches I didn’t even know I had came to the surface and my eyes started to droop. “You’re going to take a little nap while we head to the castle,” she said in her overly kind, motherly voice, and my eyes drooped lower, aches pulsing all over my body. “I’ve got something really important to talk to you about.”

“Wait…” I muttered, struggling futilely to break out of Celestia’s expert grasp. “Mom’s… here… I never… get to see her…” My eyes closed against my will and I was embraced by the warm hug of sleep, going limp.

Throughout my nap I could feel Celestia’s back as she flew to the castle, hear her constant lullaby, and occasionally feel something nuzzle my prone form. I felt us land, and felt Celestia tuck me in, then nothing.

I woke with a stir, naturally, with no alarm clock or cold water, and when I opened my eyes, a pink unicorn mare came into view. She was sitting down in a chair, a book in her magical grasp. I thought of staying as still as possible so she didn’t notice me, like if she did she’d hurt me, but remembered who brought me here and yawned, raising my head.

I was in a four poster bed in a cobblestone room. There was a fireplace right by the pink pony and a rug under her chair. Not much else, there was a window, but that just meant it was night…

“Ah, you’re up,” the pink mare said, closing her book, exposing the cover to me. She sounded kind and looked at me with a smile. “You slept for seven hours, you must have been really tired.” She walked up and nuzzled my cheek. Physical contact felt so… foreign to me, no one in Canterlot has ever given me any for four months, not since Cross left. I flinched back, falling on my side and making the mare chuckle.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Silly,” the mare with blue eyes said, raising a hoof to hide her giggles. “You know, fillies like you shouldn’t be reading stuff like this,” She held up Starters of Fire, “It gives them nightmares.”

I lunged at her, hoof out stretched, and realized two things. One was that in my left hoof was something soft. It looked like a gray pony stuffed doll with a red and blue button eye, mane style a little too out there for me. It wore a pair of blue and white striped pants, and that’s it. The second thing I noticed was that I really had to go to the bathroom.

I retracted my hoof, placing it against my crotch and started doing a little pee pee dance in the bed.  “Where’s the bathroom?” I said blushing. This was the first time I ever had to ask to use the bathroom.

“Celestia said you’d need to go when you woke, here.” she pointed to the wall, “there’s a bathroom over there. Just through the door”

I rushed past the door, slammed it and locked it.

When I finished I opened the door and the blue eyed unicorn greeted me with a smile. “Feel better?”

“Yes,” I paused, “much.”

The pink mare looked at me, then slid Starters of Fire into her saddlebags. “I’ll hold onto this,” she said, a thin smile creasing her features. Before I could do anything she shouted “Oh yeah! I still need to introduce myself.” The mare sat down next to me with a smile a mile wide. “My name’s Cheery Smiles, I run the Cheery Days Daycare here in Canterlot, what’s your name.”

“Crystal Agate,” I said, “Can I have my book back? My mother gave it to me.”

She glared at me for a second, then her face returned to a natural smile. “Of course not, now lets get going, Celestia told me to take you to her after you relieved yourself.” She got up and headed out the room.

“Um, no, give me my book back, I’ve already read it ten times so…”

“Good, so you don’t need it anymore, but I do.”

I questioned why this mare needed a copy of Starters of Fire, and I thought about punching her to get it back, but that didn’t seem wise. I don’t know why, but harming this pink mare felt like a death sentence. There was something about her that intimidated me. I decided to grab another copy and swap them later on.

The hallways were a vast, endless maze of cobblestone crisscrossing the entire span of the castle. I had once read that castles were designed this way to confuse and slow down invaders, giving the defenders a sort of home field advantage.

I walked along Cheery’s side, my opinion of the mare changing. She seemed warm and inviting, but had a hard side to her, don’t cross me and we’ll be best friends it said,  a lot like my big sister.

Suddenly my thoughts turned to Cross, and at that moment I wanted nothing but to hug her.

“Why did Celestia bring me here?” I asked Cheery. We passed as set of guards before she responded.

“I don’t really know, but I do know that it’s really important.”

Important huh? I thought about Cross again, how she ran away from home. Could she have come here? My heart began to race at the thought. Cross could have come to the caste, somehow got an audience with the princess and convinced her to take me from the house so she didn’t have to deal with Mom.

It sounded crazy, but so did sleeping for seven hours and getting kidnapped by the princess! That, and the thought of touching her fur, smelling her again after four long and lonely months drove me to believe it was truthful.

I began to pick up my pace, a smile growing. Soon I was one pony’s length, then two, ahead of Cheery.“Hurry up!” I shouted, suddenly knowing exactly which way to go. “Hurry up Cheery!” I didn’t wait for a response. I knew that in Celestia’s throne room was Cross, just waiting to hug me after four months. “She’ll come back and I’ll have my second mommy again!” I shouted, jumping towards the sky.

A few guards stood at each end of the mahogany door, but I didn’t care, I blew by them and rushed into the throne room, smiling ear to ear.

“Cross!” I shouted to the near empty room. Celestia sat in her throne with what looked to be a teenaged purple unicorn at her left.

I moved up, my smile not fading. “Cross? Celestia, where’s Cross?” I looked at Celestia, her face a mixture of composure and sorrow. The purple unicorn glared at me.

“Cross? Where are you?” I turned left, then right, looking for my sister. “Big Sister Best Friend Forever?” My pep drained away. The more I looked, the less I found her. “Okay Cross, this is a funny joke, can you come out so I can hug you?” No answer, only more glaring from the purple unicorn.

I looked to Celestia, again not wearing her royal garbs, and saw something that made my heart stop. A single tear flowing down her etched face. “Crystal, I apologize for…”

 “Celestia, where’s my sister?” I took a step closer, aggression edging itself into my voice, something the purple unicorn didn’t like, “That’s why you brought me here, right? Because Cross wanted to see me again… but didn’t want to deal with Mom.” I paused, a frog in my throat. “R-Right?”

Celestia stood, and I felt Cheery place her arm around my neck. I looked towards her and saw a sorrowful expression as she panted. “Crystal Agate, your sister and best friend forever, Cross Agate… is... dead.”